Commentary, Linked Articles and Other Flotsam About Innovation

A common misconception when it comes to scrum is to do away with Gantt Charts. But Agile for Hardware embraces the use of Gantt Charts. The thing with Gantt Charts is that they are inherently anti-Agile, its that they are so strongly associated with Waterfall planning that it’s difficult to separate the two. However, Gantt … [Read more…]

We had an interesting issue arise this week. A business need, one which has been under discussion for a couple of weeks and was being worked on, was brought up as an impediment in the EAT. In summary, the appliance box needed an update on its graphics to meet a previously unknown retailer requirement. The … [Read more…]

Large U.S. firms react to competition from high-quality foreign importers by investing more in their own R&D efforts and producing more patents. Source: A Side Effect of Imports: They Encourage Homegrown Innovation

To address their disappointing innovation results, many management teams advocate a strategy of launching Fewer, Bigger, Better products. While this is a sound approach, it has proven difficult to execute. Success requires the organizational resolve, discipline and confidence to launch fewer projects and still meet top-line innovation goals. Source: Innovation Excellence | How To: Make … [Read more…]

In today’s fast-paced, highly visual and interactive world, it is difficult and unrealistic to drive enthusiasm and deliver strong results from a new PLM implementation with an approach that is documentation-driven, slow-moving and highly bureaucratic. Rapid prototyping or agile development, which is an iterative and collaborative approach characterized by short “requirement –> build –> test” … [Read more…]

“Despite being able to build just about anything with 3D printing, until now items have been limited to polymer plastics, a handful of metals and glass. However, researchers at HRL Laboratories have announced a significant advancement in additive manufacturing: the ability to print ceramics Source: Now we can 3D print ceramics

“Creativity researchers have shown that serendipity plays a big role in creativity, and that serendipity is more likely to happen when you seek out new experiences and become more aware of what’s going on around you. “The book Inventology by Pagan Kennedy builds on this researc and emphasizes that serendipity is critical to creativity. (See the excerpt in today’s New York … [Read more…]

“Yesterday’s graphic designers are today’s UX designers. Will tomorrow’s UX designers will be avatar programmers, fusionists, and artificial organ designers? Yes, according to the illustrious roster of design leaders we spoke with here. “Design has matured from a largely stylistic endeavor to a field tasked with solving thorny technological and social problems, an evolution that … [Read more…]

Forward thinking is more than a generic phrase. Lisa Bodell describes in Strategy + Business specific tactics to help companies capitalize on future trends. Source: Five Steps to Formalizing Forward Thinking in Your Organization